Talk about the faith when you sit, walk, lie down and rise up…(Deuteronomy 6:7)
Happy Wednesday, I hope I am back on track with my midweek letter. January was a busy time for me. This letter may be a little lengthy because I am including information about the change in how we did background checks in the past. It is my intent to keep you as informed as possible to make this change. Please note the calendar updates too. If you have questions…just ask. I will try to answer them or at least point you in the right direction.
Devotional Thought: I Chose You
Jan 31, 2017 06:00 am
Every day of our life is filled with choices, some are very important, others are less so. The impact of the choices we make varies widely. Some are almost inconsequential, and others have monumental consequences that affect us for the rest of our lives.
When Jesus started His ministry, He had to make some extremely monumental choices too. He had to choose a team who would follow Him and, after His ascension, continue His work. Astonishingly, Jesus chose the most ordinary people. Those He selected were broken and dubious men with serious character flaws, simple people from various walks of life, with little education. Yet, after Jesus spent three and a half years with them, this ragtag band were transformed into a people of God who formed the core of His early church. God is able to use constantly struggling, doubting, ordinary people to produce the most extraordinary results. He reminds us, “You didn’t choose me. I chose you” (John 15:16, NLT).
*Activities that help Children learn about FAITH:
FEET TO FOLLOW: Children can trace their foot or shoes and cut out. Let children place their cut out traced foot in a path along a designated area. Then children will play follow the leader who will do other things with their hands or heads but as the children follow, they must only step ON the feet pictures on the floor. Let several children be leaders to be followed and encourage children to do many actions with their hands, heads or bodies for the others to imitate without stepping off a “foot”.
FAITH FEET FOLLOWING: Do the above activity but have one child blindfolded and trying to step ONLY on the feet pictures while their team mates tell them where to go and how to step carefully and let children see how far each one can go while being blindfolded, but with others giving directions to the right, or to the left, or back a little, etc.
Song: “I Have Decided to Follow Jesus”
TRUST ART: Children can write or trace big round bubble letters for the word TRUST! Then they can begin to frame the letter TRUST with different colors, making an art piece of bright colors. The children can write TRUST GOD FOR EACH JOURNEY on the top of their ART!
Indoor Game: Doing the Impossible
Form groups of four. Give each group a bag of Hershey’s Kisses. Say: Your group can eat as many Hershey’s Kisses as you want — as long as you don’t use your hands to unwrap them.
Allow time. While this is a near-impossible task, applaud your kids’ creativity and efforts.
Afterward, ask: Would you say this was an impossible task? Why or why not?
Read aloud Matthew 19:26.
Ask: What are things that are impossible for us to do that God can do? Is there anything that is impossible for God to do? Why or why not? What’s something you’re facing that seems impossible? What do you think Jesus would have you do about that “impossible” thing?
Calendar Updates: 2017
February 10-12 Georgia Cumberland Conference Children’s Ministry Conf
February 1st 3 weekends Women’s Retreat Ministry Expo
February 25 Worship Kress SDA Church Pathfinders
February 25 Couples Night Out Altamonte Springs SDA Church
March 11 VBS 2017 Showcase @ Fla Conference Community Room
March 18 Creative Ministry /Children’s Day @ 1st SDA Church WPB
April 8 Bellview Community Outreach Program
April 20-23 English Camp Meeting @ Camp Kulaqua
May 6 Go Fish/Creative Ministry Workshop @ Palm Coast SDA Church
*A Note for Singles: Good morning, all…….Here’s your mid-week reminder about what’s happening this weekend with the Central Florida Adventist Singles. Soooo….here you go!
Charlie’s Annual Superbowl Party…… Sunday, February 5th. Party starts at 6:00pm. Kick-off is at 6:30pm. Come and cheer your favorite team on. Not a football fan? Come and join in good conversation, fellowship and of course a game or two of Mexican Train. Make sure to bring your favorite “tailgate” food to share. See everyone there!!! For more info/directions, call Charlie at 352-383-3976.Also coming up…..It’s a Celebration of Love. Valentine’s Day is fast approaching. A day to celebrate the love in our lives. Let’s get together to celebrate the greatest love in all of our lives, our Lord and Savior, as well as, the love that abounds in our singles family. Bring something yummy to share and come and have some fun. Sabbath, February 11th at 7:00pm. 966 Welch Hill Circle, Apopka. Call Diane 386-848-3145 for more information. Hope everyone has a blessed, joyful day!!
As you may know, the Shield the Vulnerable program was recently replaced with a program called Verified Volunteers. This was a decision by the North American Division effective 12/31/2016.
The Verified Volunteers program is similar to STV. Once the user is on the website, they must select the Southern Union, then the Florida Conference, and their church name to begin the registration process. They will be required to do a training session first and then they can submit information for their background screening. Once their background screening is done, the user will receive an email notification from the program that they are eligible or not eligible (the importance of having an email address). The volunteer can actually go into the system and print off their background report. It is good for three years just like under the STV program. It is good to instruct your volunteers as to the steps, as we have had people not know what Union or Conference their local church belongs to and then we have to try to figure out why their record is not showing up.
The problem with the new program is that the information from Shield the Vulnerable has not been transferred over yet. This includes people who were set up in the STV system as the administrators for the various entities. Verified Volunteers is still working on being able to import the information so that the new program will have all the data from past users under the STV program. In the meantime, should you have volunteers that are either new, or their three years under the Shield the Vulnerable are up and they need to do the training and background check again, they can be provided the link below to use the Verified Volunteer program. As administrators, I would suggest that you go ahead and get set up in the new program instead of waiting for the STV information to be imported over. That way you can do your training and background screening, become familiar with the new program and guide your volunteers in getting set up under the Verified Volunteer Program. If you complete the new training/background screening please let me know once you are cleared so I can go into your record and set you up as the administrator for your entity.
The website is: www.ncsrisk.org/adventist
I hope all is well with you and you have faith to trust the Lord with everything! Have a good rest of the week. Sabbath is coming (God’s Rest Day).
Don’t forget to pray for one another. I will do the same.